Generational Destruction

Sunday, August 04, 2019

by Dr. Paul Chappell

“My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children. As they were increased, so they sinned against me: therefore will I change their glory into shame. They eat up the sin of my people, and they set their heart on their iniquity.”

Hosea 4:6–8

The people of Israel in Hosea’s day did not want to give up the worship of God altogether, but they did want to be free to add in the gods of the nations surrounding them. Most homes had small idols to represent the gods they worshiped, and any grove of trees or hilltop could become a shrine to a false deity. God rejected this attempt at blended worship and even compared the sin of idolatry to the sin of adultery. The unfaithfulness of Hosea’s wife Gomer was a glaring illustration of the cost of Israel’s idolatry.

In the New Testament, God used the sin of adultery to illustrate a Christian who loves the world in the place of God: “Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God” (James 4:4).

One of the most effective tools of Satan is to convince people that they will be able to limit the consequences of their sin. By painting something as a small transgression, he tries to persuade us that even if we get caught, there will be minimal consequences. But sin always carries consequences that go beyond what we expect. And beyond the impact that it makes on our lives, sin often has negative consequences for our family that reach far into the future. When we sin, we are unleashing a powerfully destructive force into the world, and we cannot control it.

Today's Growth Principle: 

The consequences of a sin we commit today can echo far into the future.